March 07, 2017

COLORED PENCIL: CRAYOLA vs FABER CASTELL

I know elementary art teachers that are not fans of colored pencils in their classrooms. I however...LOVE THEM!!! This year I purchased some 12 Pack Faber-Castell & some 12 & 24 Pack Crayola. Lets look at the two brands side by side.

We see some differences right away between Faber-Castell & Crayola. Faber-Castell uses a triangular design for their pencil...which is nice for preventing pencils rolling off the table(common elementary issue). The other difference you notice quickly is the colors in their 12 packs. Faber-Castell does not include white(totally good with that!!). It also includes peach & silver. Crayola does have white, and includes a red orange. Both companies(ARE YOU READING THIS???)....WHY DON'T YOU INCLUDE GRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I could do without silver & white...the need for them is not great. Elementary kids want gray!! THEY NEED GRAY!!!! Lets count the ways we need gray...rocks, buildings, old people's hair, kitties named Smokey, gray houses, sidewalks...and on and on! PLEASE HEAR MY PLEA FOR GRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is the Crayola 24 Pack....and it has GRAY!!! I actually really like the color options in this pack of colored pencils, but my budget doesn't always allow for me to purchase the bigger pack. I do wish it had a light version of gray...this one is on the dark side.

This is the side by side for the 12 packs. I found it interesting that the only major difference was between the violet in the two brands. Faber-Castell is clearly a red violet & Crayola is clearly a blue violet. I'll also say that Faber-Castell's red & Crayola's red orange are closely related.

SO THERE YA GO!! I like both brands...I feel they hold up about the same & the color is about the same richness. You know how some of the cheaper brands have harder leads which equal a lighter color. We all have our favorites...but with color pencils...I like both!!!

The Faber-Castell last longer in my opinion. The lead is glued into the wood and breaks less often. They also have different combos of colors and pretty sure at least one of them has a grey. Maybe it's their watercolor pencils.